


Miracles Happen - if you believe

by Shippingtheswann



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: A slow burn but not a slow burn, Ben doesn't show up till Ch 5, F/M, I probably watched the movie 100 times writing this, Kylo isn't that bad, Leia is Queen, No Raven at all, Oh How Sweet, Orphan Rey, Pining, Poe is her fiance, Princess - Freeform, Princess Diaries AU, Rey is a Kenobi, Rey is a princess, Riding in the Stang, Royal Engagement, Royalty, Slow Burn, Smile and Wave, Snoke is a douche, Star Wars AU, Surprise Family, You've watched the movie, happily ever after guaranteed, noone asked for this, quarantine fic, reylo au, shut up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:13:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25833325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shippingtheswann/pseuds/Shippingtheswann
Summary: The Princess Diaries AU that no one asked for.Rey had wondered who she was her whole life - and now she knew. She was the granddaughter of King Kenobi - may he rest in peace. That meant she was Princess of Chandrila. But, being a princess meant more than she could have ever thought - it meant being Queen. And being Queen came with stipulations she didn’t think she could live with.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Miracles Happen - if you believe

**Author's Note:**

> The Princess Diaries AU that no one asked for. Wrote this after watching The Princess Diaries and I am a sucker for putting Reylo into situations of movies I am watching. Be thankful I haven’t written The Office AU or The West Wing AU with them yet. I am writing this story differently than I have written to others. In the past, I have written out an outline of the story and have it detailed out from start to finish. This time, I am just going to write and see where the story will take me - since it is an AU of a story most of us already know, I don’t need to plan it out that much. I also used a lot of the script when it came to actually use dialogue. I know, I know, it’s wrong - but I wanted it to feel genuine to the story. I did change some things up, but a lot of it will seem similar. 
> 
> I will be posting at least twice a month - but it maybe once a week depending on how quick I write!
> 
> This is also Un-beta'd so all issues are mine alone.

“Time for school!”

The shout from downstairs pulled Rey from her daydreaming out the window. The view of San Francisco always seemed to have that effect on her. It pulled her from whatever she was supposed to do, encasing her mind in a cloud of dreams she could never speak aloud. 

She grabbed her backpack from the hook on the back of her door and slid down the fire pole that sat in the middle of her bedroom. She felt wrong if she started off her day without sliding down the pole. In fact, the last time she took the stairs, she had ended up breaking her arm during gym class, and that was after she had thrown up her lunch while making a speech in her middle school debate class. So for the past nine years, she had taken the fire pole each day. It was her own little good luck charm. 

“Thanks, Dad,” she laughed, elbowing Finn in the stomach as she walked by him, making a beeline for the coffee. 

“Come on, it’s our last day of college, have a little fun will you?” he replied, as he walked into his room that sat directly below hers.

It used to be Maz’s room. She still felt a twinge of sadness when she thought about it. She had been in Maz’s care since she was five - when her mother died. When Rey turned 18 and graduated high school, Maz gave Rey the old firehouse that they had lived in, bought an RV, and set out on the open road. She claimed her artistic talent was being squandered by sticking in one place too long. Last time she had heard from Maz, she was somewhere in Montana learning about some sort of Native American pottery. 

Finn had moved in soon after. Rey hated the silence, so his addition to their home was nice, since Finn never seemed to stop talking. 

They both attended the University of San Francisco and before the weekend was up, would be graduates trying to make their way in the real world. Rey had studied engineering while Finn had spent his time in the journalism market. Both were quite unsure about what to do once they were done with school. They didn’t have to worry as much as their classmates though - they both had a place to stay rent free, both had gone to school on a scholarship so they didn’t have any student loans to worry about, and they both had part time jobs that paid for their normal bills. Life was pretty good if you asked her. Yet, Rey felt like there was something missing.

It had plagued her since her mother died. She didn’t know anything about her family. Maz always told her that the family you chose was more important than the family you were born to - so she had no help there. All she knew was her mother’s name Helen Johnson. Other than that, Rey was completely unaware of family. Her memories of her mother were mostly about the time they spent together. She didn’t remember her mother ever talking about family. She had longed for a family, for a place in the world. Sure, she loved Finn and Maz - but it wasn’t the same. 

“Ready?” Finn’s voice pulled here once again from her own thoughts - something it often did. 

“Let’s go,” she grabbed her tumbler of coffee and keys and headed out the door. 

“Cheers!”

Rey’s glass clinked with Finn’s as they celebrated the end of their college years. They had made it through their finals and would be graduating on Saturday. Plus she had just found out that she was being featured in the paper as one of the school’s top 10 graduates. They did it every year - ten students were interviewed for the local newspaper and featured in the special graduation issue. Those students normally went on to lucrative careers. It would open so many doors for her - plus would be something amazing to add to her resume. 

“I still can’t believe they chose me for the article,” she confessed over the lo mein they were sharing.

“Of course you were chosen - your work with the robotics team from CalState really was brilliant. Those guys were graduate students and couldn’t figure the problem out. You came in and within two minutes were able to fix the robot and had it working at twice the speed it had been,” he beamed at her. He had always been her biggest cheerleader. 

“Thanks Finn,” she smiled. 

They spent the rest of the night getting drunk off the cheap champagne they bought at the Trader Joe’s down the street and eating way more take out than they should have. They reminisce about everything they had done the last four years: how Finn had organized a sit in at the dean’s office to protest the college’s lack of tofu in the mess hall - even though he wasn’t a vegan or vegetarian, how Finn had the highest ratings on the local cable channel with “Shut Up and Listen”, how Rey had gotten finally gotten through a public speech without vomiting or running scared - though she did vomit before and after that presentation, and how Rey had finally gone on a real date - even though that date had sucked and the guy had ghosted her after. 

Yet that feeling still lurked. That longing of belonging. That pull for a family, a true family. No matter what she did, no matter how happy she seemed to be - there was always that gaping hole. 

That feeling of longing is what kept her in San Francisco. When they were choosing colleges, Finn wanted to go away - to explore what the world had to offer, just like Maz. Yet, Rey couldn’t leave. The city was the only thing she had connecting her to family. She had this strange feeling that someone, one day, would come looking for her - maybe her father or grandparents. If she just stayed where her mother had been, had lived, then they would find her. 

So they stayed, even though she knew it killed Finn to plant roots in the city. They stayed, and no one ever came looking. 

The phone had been ringing all morning. It had been a week since graduation, since the article had come out; and Rey had been fielding calls for jobs the entire time. By the time they made it home from the ceremony there were fourteen voicemails and about twenty emails all asking about her plans for after college. She should have been excited, but it just felt overwhelming. 

She wasn’t anyone special. She worked hard and knew her shit, that was true, but other than that, she didn’t have much to offer. Why would these companies want someone like her for the positions they were offering? She wasn’t a leader - in fact she worked better alone, tinkering with whatever mechanism was in front of her. She wasn’t made to direct a team. She wasn’t someone who came up with the ideas either. She was a follower. She wanted to play her part, but didn’t want to be in the spotlight. 

Sure, Finn was right in his assessment of why she was included in the newspaper - she did fix a problem that ten graduate students couldn’t figure out in a six month period, and yes she was able to see the problem the second her class walked into the room. But, it wasn’t like they asked for her. It wasn’t like her professors spoke about her to each other, she doubted half of them actually knew her name. She had just gotten lucky. 

All she wanted to do was stay in the city, do work that meant something, and be happy. She didn’t want to lead a team at Google. She didn’t want the insane amount of money that MIT was offering her to come and teach. She didn’t want the team development leader position that was being offered by a tech company in Seattle. There was only one offer that was close to something she would be interested in. The city was looking for an engineer to work with different architecture firms as their liaison. It wasn’t the most prestigious job, and it didn’t pay well, but it kept her in the city. It also didn’t require her to be in the spotlight - allowing her to work over email and conference calls. But it still wasn’t what she wanted to do. 

What she really wanted to do was tinker with things. She was half tempted to just walk down the street to the first mechanic shop she ran into and ask for a job there. She wanted to get her hands dirty. She wanted to fix things. 

The chirp of her cell phone made her groan.

“This is the eighth call this hour,” she mumbled, not wanting to even look at the number. 

She had decided, fairly early in the week, that she would just stop answering calls from numbers outside the area code. She still listened to their messages, but she flat out refused to answer the call. Her emails and replies were starting to get mean. Some of the companies were a bit too forceful in trying to get her to work for them. Finn had helped her draft a blanket email to every company that she wasn’t interested in. It didn’t sound anything like her, but it was firm and once they received it, they left her alone.

“Do you want me to answer it?” Finn asked.

He repeated his offer, which he had done a few times in the last couple of hours. He said it gave him a chance to practice his journalism skills. He would act like her secretary and ask the hard hitting questions. He would tell the companies that she would only speak to those who were willing to answer his questions. She had been tempted, but she also didn’t want to give anyone even the slightest idea that she would be interested in a job in Ontario, or wherever they were calling from this time. 

“No, just let it go to voicemail,” she sighed as Finn picked up her phone.

Finn’s eyes widened at the screen. 

“Where are they calling from now?” she asked, her interest perking.

Finn wasn’t one to get surprised by something, but the number on her screen had almost made him speechless.

“It’s from Chandrila,” his excitement could hardly be contained. 

Chandrilla was on the top of Finn’s bucket list. The small country, situated in the middle of two European countries and the sea, was known for its culture and tourism. They were also known for their industry. They were one of the leading makers of automobiles. Every major manufacturer had an office in Chandrila. She remembered back in highschool how people wanted to protest cars made in Chandrila, because they took jobs from “hard working Americans”. The funny thing about that was, most of the car was still made in the USA or Japan or wherever the company had their home office; it was the computer parts that were made in Chandrila. They had also just started making specialized batteries to rid the world of its dependency on oil. One company - Skywalker Motors - had even partnered with Tesla to make a sustainable battery that was inexpensive and their blueprints and designs were free to any maker on the market. 

She wouldn’t lie - a job working with Skywalker motors would be a dream - even if it would take her away from the one place she had sworn she would never leave. 

“Should I answer it?” Finn asked, his finger hovering over the button.

Before she could say anything, Finn went ahead and accepted the call. He must have read her expression. She held her breath as she heard him answer.

“Rey Johnson’s phone - Finn speaking,” he put on his reporter voice, giving himself way more authority than he actually had. 

“Yes, of course,” he responded to a question on the other end. 

She scooted to the edge of her seat, ears primed, trying to hear what they were saying. Sure, it scared the hell out of her. She didn’t know what was being asked of her, and she was just letting Finn make major decisions for her. She trusted him, of course she did, but he was known to be a bit rash. He knew about Rey’s reasons to stay in the area, He didn’t agree with them, but he understood. 

He had been in foster care as well. They were both placed in the same temporary home when Rey’s mother first died. Finn’s parents had died in a car accident, and he didn’t have any other family. They had bonded quickly over that. Rey had been lucky that Maz loved her mother and was willing to take Rey in, but because her mother didn’t leave a will, it took awhile for the adoption to be approved. Finn had also gotten lucky. A lovely family adopted him only a few weeks after Rey went to live with Maz. They lived only two blocks away from Maz, which meant they grew up together. But, Finn knew who his family was. He knew that he once had a family and what happened to them. He never had to imagine. There wasn’t anything truly keeping him in San Francisco the way it kept Rey.

Finn paced back and forth, asking questions that Rey could no longer keep track of. Her mind was racing. Why would someone in Chandrila be calling her? It wasn’t like they got The Chronicle in Europe. So why would they be calling for a job? Maybe it was a prank. It’s happened before. Freshman year of high school one of the boyband wannabes asked her to the dance. She of course said yes, cause she wasn’t blind. He of course stood her up. Thankfully, she had Finn and they went together. Karma bit the guy in the ass that night too, his date got drunk, vomited, and passed out quickly on the dance floor. 

“Yes, yes, I think she could do that,” he answered. 

Rey had a nasty habit of chewing on her nails and picking at her cuticles when she was nervous. Her poor hands would be throbbing later with how hard she was picking at the loose cuticle on her thumb. What had he agreed to? Did they offer her a job interview? 

“No that won’t be a problem,” he nodded as he paced around the counter. 

“Alright, yes, she will be there,” his smile was huge as he hung up the phone. 

The suspense was killing her and she knew Finn wouldn’t tell her what had just happened unless she asked. 

“What happened?” her hands were on her knees and she leaned forward like she was about to receive the worst news of her life. 

“You have a meeting at Skywalker Motors tomorrow afternoon, at 3 PM,” he said, like it was the most normal sentence in the world. 

“And…” she prodded, waving her hand to make him continue his train of thought. 

“And nothing. You are meeting Leia Organa at 3 PM.”

“Why am I meeting Leia Organa at 3 PM?” she asked, trying to see if the name rang any bells. It didn’t. She knew the CEO’s name - Luke Skywalker. He was well known within the engineering world. He had once been as eccentric as Elon Musk, but she rarely heard of him now. Sure the company was talked about a lot, but their boss’s name rarely appeared in the papers. 

“I actually don’t know,” he sounded deflated.

“What do you mean you don’t know? They weren’t calling for an interview? What the hell am I going to do there? Why did you set up a meeting for me if you didn’t even know what it was for?” Rey’s questions were flying at Finn quicker than her mind could keep up. She was furious. 

“They wouldn’t tell me why they wanted a meeting. The woman calling was named Kaydel Ko Connix, Leia Organa’s secretary. She said Leia specifically requested a private meeting with you and that the details of that meeting were private and would only be released to you. She said that Leia was flying into San Francisco from Chandrila especially to meet with you,” he pointed at her as she began to pace the same route that Finn had done on the phone.

“Why would someone with Skywalker Motors want a meeting with me?” Rey pondered.

“She actually isn’t from Skywalker Motors,” he confessed, “Kaydel said that you all would just be utilizing their space, nothing more. Your meeting isn’t with Skywalker Motors, it’s with this Leia Organa,” he explained. 

“And who the hell is Leia Organa?” she huffed.

  
  
  


While Rey drank from the bottle of whiskey Finn was saving for a rainy day, Finn put his journalism degree to good use and scoured the internet for any leads on who this Leia Organa was. 

“Why did you accept a meeting for me with this person if you didn’t know who they were, they weren’t looking for an interview, and they don’t work for Skywalker Motors?” she asked, taking another large swig of the amber liquid. 

“Because her secretary made it sound important,” he began, “besides, you haven’t taken any interviews anyways. You need to start looking for something. I have five interviews lined up for next week, while you are refusing to talk to anyone that is outside a fifteen mile radius.”

“And that is a bad thing why? Shouldn’t I be picky about where I work?” she countered.

“Of course, but Rey, you are being too picky. Besides, her secretary didn’t sound threatening. It’s not like you are meeting them in a random dimly lit parking lot. You are meeting them in the middle of a work day, in a busy building. Found her!,” the discovery causing his voice to go up an octave. 

Rey walked over, the bottle still in hand, to see what Finn had found. He had only been searching for two minutes. Either Leia Organa was someone important, or Finn had found his calling as an investigative journalist. 

Peering over his shoulder, Rey took in the Wikipedia page on Leia Organa. Also known as Queen Leia Skywalker Organa Solo, General of Chandrila’s military. 

“Are you seriously telling me that you set up a meeting with the fucking Queen of Chandrila?” she screamed, not caring if half the block heard her.

  
  
  


The last time Rey woke up hungover was the morning after their first football game as Freshman. And she swore she would never wake up hungover again. That was until she found out that her wonderful best friend, whom she had always supported, had made her a meeting with a fucking queen. Over the bottle of whiskey, Rey and Finn had read through the Queen’s wiki page, from her birth to her current political policies. They then went down the rabbit hole that is Wikipedia. 

Around 4 AM after reading a page about some random duke who had lived about four hundred years ago and who was only three feet tall, they had turned in. Actually, they only turned in because the bottle was empty and they had finished all the beer that Finn had left in the fridge. 

Her head was throbbing and her stomach felt off, but at least the feeling of nausea wasn’t what woke her. Instead, it was the obnoxious chime of her alarm. At least she had the sense the night before to set an alarm. It was a little after noon and Rey had to get ready for her meeting with the queen. Even though she still wasn’t sure why the hell she was meeting with a queen, and why they were meeting at Skywalker Motors instead of the consulate or somewhere more regal. 

Her anger towards Finn had dissipated quickly after discovering who Leia Organa actually was. How was he supposed to know? He did have her best interests at heart. Besides, as Finn said, it wasn’t like they told him she was the queen. He also reminded her that at least she found out beforehand - this way she wouldn’t be blind sided when she went into her meeting. 

A knock pulled Rey farther from her slumber. 

“Hair of the dog that bit ya?” he asked, waving a red drink in his hand.

Rey could only respond with a grunt. 

For the next few hours, Rey got ready. Well actually, it took Rey all of thirty minutes to shower, get changed, and do her hair. She wasn’t the type of girl who went out of her way to look nice. She was simple. Her three bun hairstyle had been her go to look since she was little - it felt safe and comforting. Her makeup consisted of some mascara and tinted lip gloss. Finn had mentioned to her once that she was already beautiful enough that she didn’t need makeup. He had also told her that is why she was picked on by the other girls at school. She had a natural beauty that only those girls could wish for. Rey didn’t see it, but she was always thankful for Finn's compliments when he gave them. 

The rest of the time Rey spent walking a dent into the floor. She couldn’t help herself. She was a pacer. It was better than picking another set of cuticles, causing another finger to bleed. Plus, it got the nervous energy out of her. Hopefully, her foot wouldn’t be bouncing when she met the queen. 

God, what would a queen even want with her? This was the article all over again. She wasn’t anything special. She was a no one. She had Finn and Maz, so she mattered, but to the billions of other people on the planet, she literally couldn’t matter less. She was more or less invisible. Hell in high school, she used to get sat on in the quad - that was how much people didn’t notice her. So what would a queen want with an engineering graduate, who had no job, no family?

All too soon, Rey found herself standing in the lobby of one of the tallest buildings in the city. Skywalker Motors took up the top six floors. The elevator ride seemed to go on forever, she had close to forty floors to climb. If you had asked her later what she had thought about on that ride, she wouldn’t be able to answer you. Her brain felt like it was only receiving and sending static. Like there was a white noise machine and it was cranked up to full volume and placed right in the middle of her empty head. 

She couldn’t remember giving her name to the security guard on the bottom floor. She couldn’t remember giving her name again to the next security guard she met as she exited the elevator into the lobby of Skywalker Motors. She couldn’t remember how she even found herself sitting in a sleek office, with a view to die for. Rey’s view from the top of the old fire house was nice, but it was absolutely shit compared to what she was witnessing at that moment. 

“Hello Ms. Johnson, I’m Kaydel Ko Connix from the Chandrila Attache Corps, welcome to Skywalker Motors,” the woman who walked through the door, pulling Rey from the view, said. 

There was no hint of an accent and the woman actually looked like a young woman, not much older than Rey. She was also not dressed how Rey expected her to dress. Finn had said the woman standing in front of her was the secretary to the queen, yet she was in a simple pencil skirt and white top. She didn’t know what to expect, just not what she saw. 

“It’s just Rey,” she extended her hand and shook the woman’s.

“Is there anything that I could get you while you wait?” Kaydel asked.

“Ummm, no thank you,” Rey responded, moving towards the couch that was positioned along one of the walls.

“Alright, well if you just sit down, she’ll be with you in a moment.”

“No, I don’t need a moment. I’m here,” Leia Organa said, gliding into the room. “Rey, I’m so glad that you could come.”

Rey had seen the queen’s picture the night before, but the woman who was standing in front of her was someone totally different, yet exactly the same. In the photograph, she was so well put together, jewels hanging around her neck, her glare piercing the screen. She had been ornate and untouchable. In front of her was the same woman, her glare still pierced Rey, but she was so simple, much like Kaydel. Her dress wasn’t ornate or fancy, but professional and clean. Her hair was more grey than it was in the picture, and hung a bit different. 

“Hello,” was all that Rey could get out.

“Well, let me look at you,” she said, cupping her hands in front of her, her eyes moving up and down Rey’s body.

A nervous giggle escaped Rey’s lips. The whole meeting was entering into the odd realm and she wasn’t quite sure what was happening. 

“I’m sorry,” was all that Rey could say. 

“That’s quite alright dear, nothing to be sorry for. Please have a seat, there is much to discuss,” Leia, the queen, motioned for Rey to take a seat as she sat down on one of the chairs that faced the couch, “Kaydel, some tea please.”

“Right away,” she said, exiting the room, leaving them alone. 

“I’m sorry, I’m not quite sure what I’m doing here,” Rey confessed. 

“Of course, let us have tea and discuss why I asked Kaydel to bring you here,” Leia said, as Kaydel came back into the room with a cart. 

It was only then that Rey realized she had met a queen and hadn’t once curtsied or said Ma’am. She had lost all sense of manners and was probably making a fool of herself. Yet, the queen was treating her as if they knew each other and formalities weren’t necessary. The appointment was continuing to grow in its strangeness.

Leia waited as Rey took the cup Kaydel had prepared for her. She tentatively wrapped her fingers around the mug, breathing in the wonderful aroma. She wasn’t quite sure what kind of tea it was, but it smelled heavenly. 

“It’s pear tea, a Chandrila speciality,” Kaydel offered as Rey looked into the cup.

“Rey,” Leia said, holding her own cup, and taking a sip before continuing, “have you ever heard of Obi-Wan Ben Kenobi?”

“No,” Rey said with a bit more force than was necessary.

“He was the King of Chandrila,” Leia said, no emotion surrounding the statement. 

“Hmmmm,” she responded, taking a sip of the tea, surprised it actually tasted wonderful, “what about him?”

Leia sat her tea cup down on the table between them. She looked pensive, almost as if she wasn’t sure how to construct her next sentence. There was a slight hesitation behind her eyes, a worry. There was also kindness and compassion. It was an odd look, but it was oddly comforting, and Rey felt herself relax.

“He was your grandfather.”

Rey let out a snort at the thought. Because what just came out of the queen’s mouth was a laugh, but she didn’t want to insult the woman. There was no way that a man that was for one thing a king, and for another that had such a strange name, was her grandfather. Not when her mother’s last name was Johnson, a name so common. 

“Yeah, sure” she said, trying not to sound annoyed or dismayed, but failing magnificently. 

Yet Leia sat there, no smile crossing her lips, no change in her stare. She was looking at Rey the exact way she had looked at her a moment before. 

“My grandfather was the King of Chandrila, uh-huh, you’re joking,” Rey laughed, finally allowing herself to realize she had been set up all along. Finn’s future in investigative journalism was definitely hanging by a thread. This had to be a joke of some kind. That’s why Kaydel didn’t look like a queen’s secretary. That’s why Leia didn’t look like how a queen should look. That’s why there was no offense taken when Rey didn’t do what you should customarily do when meeting a queen. This person must be one of those celebrity look-a-likes that you could hire for parties.

“Why would I joke about something like that?” Leia responded, looking around as if the question answered itself.

“No, no: because there is no way that I am related to a King. Because if I was, then that would mean…” she trailed off, laughter filling the air.

Certainly by now, whoever was pulling the prank would jump out from one of the closets in the room and reveal themselves. Right? Yet, no one was coming out. Leia and Kaydel were passing looks between them, unsure of how to react. 

“Rey, you aren’t just Rey Johnson: you are Reyna Satine Johnson Kenobi, Princess of Chandrila.”


End file.
